Robots

This is a sampling of about 100 robot illustrations I did for a series of computer programming books for kids. The author gave me a list of topics and left me free to design the robots and images as I liked. I came up with a set of 10 robot characters with very different designs (and personalities) to use for the project. The author wasn't too keen on the crazy looking green robot with wild wire hair so it was only used in a single illustration.

PocketDoodles for Christmas

I was flattered when the author requested me specifically to create the approximately 250 drawings for this book. I always get a kick out of drawing silly Santas, elves, reindeer, snowmen and the like. A challenging aspect of this project was coming up with the 25 unique Advent Calendar windows featured in the first part of the book.

Official Description

The popular Pocketdoodles series lets imaginations run wild with fun drawing prompts for all ages and occasions in a portable size. Now the Christmas edition captures the excitement of the holiday on paper, with an advent calendar and holiday prompts from A Christmas Carol, The Nutcracker, classic Christmas carols and much more.

Conversations

These illustrations were for a series of practice conversations for the GrapeSEED English Curriculum. Each conversation included a large primary illustration and two spot illustrations. I was given a lot of freedom in choosing what to illustrate, being provided with just the text.

Surfin'

Self-Promotional Artwork

A self-promotional digital painting inspired by a trip to Hawai’i. Ironically, I never got around to surfing on that trip.

Ridin' the Rainbow

Self-Promotional Artwork for St. Patrick’s Day

A digital painting used as a self-promotional piece for March email newsletter. Created in Photoshop from rough sketches to final artwork. The rainbow was drawn in Illustrator then blurred and made transparent in Photoshop. I used a clipart photo of the Irish countryside for the background.

Turkey Recon

Self-Promotional Artwork

A digital painting for Thanksgiving created in Photoshop.

The Mail Carrier

GrapeCity, Inc.

GrapeSEED English Curriculum

Illustrations for a song called “The Mail Carrier” for the GrapeSEED English Curriculum. The song was not just about a mail carrier, but also included firefighters. I was able to do 3 of the 4 page spreads as single large illustrations.

Keldon Warlord Revisited

Private Commission

I was recently commissioned to create a new version of my Keldon Warlord painting that was originally done for the first Magic: The Gathering trading card game back in 1992. Below is the new painting and the original card painting. Both were done with acrylics. I’ve also included notes and photos of my process.

Keldon Warlord Revisited

The new painting is quite a bit more refined than my original due to several factors. 1) I’ve improved my painting techniques over the past 20+ years, 2) I took a lot more time with the new painting as I was paid significantly more, 3) the new painting is 12″ x 18″; the original was 5 1/2″ x 7″. I wanted to improve on various aspects of the subject: A more realistic main figure, a better sense of atmosphere, more intensity, and more realistic sword and helmet.

Original Keldon Warlord Painting

The first step, of course, was the layout sketch, shown here at full size ready for transfer to the paper.

Moving on to the painting had its share of difficulties. When I dug out my acrylics i found about a third of them had dried up and I had to order more. Once the paints arrived I realized I was missing critical brush sizes and had to run out and buy new ones. I was surprised, however, at how many of the paints were still good as some of them dated back to my art school days in the late 80’s.

I started in on the background. I’m painting on watercolor paper with several coats of Gesso. I’m starting with a dark, moonlit night on the left moving the to red and yellow glow of the fires on the right.

Next I moved on to the fire and decided to look at photos of forest fires to try for a more realistic look. The fires were primarily white at the bottom and moved to yellow and then orange at the edges. Virtually no red in the flames at all. Added smoke in the sky reflecting a bit of the fire glow.

Painting the broken tower at the left was the opposite of the fires on the right, using blue, black and gray. Added some yellow reflecting from the fires along the block edges. Can’t tell you how difficult it is to smoothly blend acrylics to get the tower to look round!

Here I’ve painted the background monsters.

Flesh areas and cape...

Added veins to arms, painted base helmet tones and blue metal rims, started on mouth and the crimson parts of outfit and sword. I didn’t actually get around to working on the flesh again yet.

Here’s the stage before the final details. I’ve blocked in the sword with gold details, blocked in the horns, added shading to the belt and straps, finished the mouth and added details to the helmet.

High Jumping Athlete

Illustrations for a song called “High Jumping Athlete” for the GrapeSEED English Curriculum. I particularly liked the two page spread of the girl in the various stages of her event from run-up to jump to landing on the pad.

Family at the Zoo

GrapeCity, Inc.

This is a storybook that is a companion to an animated version on DVD. I was tasked with adapting the 3D animation to a print version. This meant condensing animated sequences into single images that fit the text.

The characters in this story are Pete’s family. Pete is one of the “MeySen Kids”, the core character set of the program. He’s the yellow-haired boy in the green school sweater.

This is one of my all-time favorite projects with all the different animals and zoo environments. I'm especially proud of the bird's eye view of the zoo in the second to last spread.

Chesapeake Energy

Concussion LLP

Kids’ activity book for Chesapeake Energy, a natural gas company. I created the dog character, Charlie, for this project to make the images more kid-friendly. I actually learned quite a bit about natural gas doing this project.

April Fools Jack-in-the-Box

Self-Promotional Artwork

A digital painting used as a self-promotional piece for April email newsletter. Created entirely in Photoshop from rough sketches to final artwork. One of my goals in this piece was to create a sense of dynamic movement and energy, like a photo capturing a moment of action without resorting to cartoon movement lines.

Camp Hyrule 2004

Nintendo of America

Vector illustrations for Nintendo’s annual virtual summer camp, Camp Hyrule. This was one of several years that I created the illustrations, which featured both classic games and new releases. I really liked creating the overall, bird's eye view of the camp, and modifying it into the flooded version.

Camp Hyrule 2006

Nintendo Power Magazine

Vector illustrations for Nintendo Power’s annual virtual summer camp, Camp Hyrule. The theme for this year was “Super Mario Galaxy.” The illustrations were created in Adobe Illustrator and imported into Flash. Interactivity and animation was added by the client. All the building and object designs were mine with the exception of Mini Mario World, the Wii, the DS Lite and the Great Fox ship. I had a lot of fun creating the various condensed worlds.

Mario Karts

Nintendo of America

Vector illustrations an online Flash version of Mario Karts for one of Nintendo’s web sites. Characters and karts were drawn in Adobe Illustrator then imported into Flash.

Cupid Commando

Self-Promotional Artwork

A self-promotional digital painting for February email newsletter. Cupid and minigun were painted in Photoshop. The heart and text were creted in Illustrator and enhanced in Photoshop. The background is a clipart photo with the sky color manipulated.

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

GRAPECITY, INC.

From a series of "Story Dictionaries" featuring Jonny Bear and his family. This story is about three family trips, one to the zoo yesterday, one to the aquarium today, and one to the beach tomorrow. I particularly like the scene of the family driving to the aquarium with the car close up on a hill and the aquarium far below on the ocean shore. I think the image has a nice sense of depth.